Trudeau fights to get Trump on the ballot in Canada

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In American news, the name Donald Trump is everywhere these days as his opponents seek to have him removed from the ballot. Two states — Colorado and Maine — have already ruled Trump ineligible for election, and there are decisions pending in 15 other states on Trump’s ballot eligibility.

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While in the United States, the effort is to take Trump off the ballot, in Canada, Justin Trudeau is desperately trying to get Trump on the ballot.

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As polling numbers for the prime minister and the Liberals began to tank this past fall, their desperation to tarnish the name and image of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre only increased. They have spent the past several months trying to equate Poilievre and The Donald, confident that since most Canadians wouldn’t vote for Trump, they won’t support Poilievre if the Liberals can make the electorate see the two politicians as being the same.

Anyone who has spoken to, followed or covered Poilievre knows he’s not anything like Trump, but that won’t stop the Liberals. Their latest attempt to tie the two together is to constantly refer to Canada’s Conservatives in “MAGA” terms.

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MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is the catchphrase Donald Trump used to help with the 2016 presidential election. It went from being emblazoned on his bright red ball cap to defining a movement, both for supporters and opponents.

There is no equivalent movement in Canada, but the Trudeau Liberals want you to think there is.

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From the time Trump announced his presidential run in December 2015 until now, the Liberals have used the term MAGA some 57 times in Parliament. A total of 55 of those references happened after Parliament resumed in September, and 44 happened in the first two weeks of December before Parliament shut down for the Christmas break.

House Leader Kevin Lamoureaux led the way with 29 references in December, while Trudeau himself was second with four mentions, even ahead of party guttersnipe Mark Gerretsen.

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“The ideologically driven MAGA Conservatives are calling for pollution to be free again,” Trudeau said on Dec. 13 when Poilievre asked Trudeau to take the rest of the carbon tax off of farmers.

That’s Trudeau’s answer to any criticism: if you disagree with him, you must be MAGA, far right or importing “American-style” politics into Canada.

The Liberals love to blast anything they believe is bringing in “American-style” politics to Canada, but it is, in fact, the party of Trudeau that are the masters at this.

At the Liberal convention in May, Hillary Clinton was the keynote speaker. During that same convention, the Liberals heard from campaign strategists and activists who have worked on campaigns for Joe Biden, Stacey Abrahms, Bernie Sanders and more.

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In the past, they’ve hosted people like David Axelrod, who put Obama in the White House, and even Howard “The Scream” Dean.

Trudeau and his Liberals love bringing Americans in to tell them how to run and win campaigns in Canada. It’s obviously been effective given that they’ve won the last three federal elections, but it is a bit rich for them to accuse anyone of importing “American-style” politics, MAGA or otherwise to Canada when Team Trudeau literally hires Americans to teach them how to win in Canada.

There’s also his penchant for importing American issues into Canadian politics.

His reaction to the Roe V. Wade decision would have made you think a Canadian court, not an American one, had made a substantial abortion ruling. He jumps on every high profile mass shooting south of the border to push for stricter gun laws in Canada, and he reacts to any innovation in Canadian health-care delivery with warnings about creeping Americanization of medicare.

In 2024, Trudeau will take all these tendencies and put them on steroids, thanks to Donald Trump, who will be omnipresent in the news on both sides of the border.

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